The UK knife surrender bin

Get A Life – Bin That Knife

is what these bins that are all over the UK read.

Source: SgtRock333 (flickr)

I previously blogged about the knife ban in the UK, but did not know about this initiative. While reading about this today something else came to my attention… apparently “regular” police in the UK do not carry guns! Only “special” units get them.

Anyway back on the topic of knife surrender bins, I have a couple of questions:

1) Do criminals actually use these?

2) Do criminals ever break into them to steal knives?

3) What do the police do with all the knives they take in? Melt them down?

4) Why is the bin so big? Even if people are depositing machettes and samari swords it still seems a bit large.

5) What is the ratio of garbage to knives on an average collection day?

6) If you got caught by the police with a knife, could you just claim “I was just on my way to a bin”, or is there some sort of special house to bin transport bag you need in order for that excuse to work?

7) How many ironic stabbings / knife heists occur right next to these bins?

LOL,,,you Brits got F%^%#,Can even have knives now huh? I bet you cant but the Queen can and the wealthy can butter there toast.Why did you little Brittards let them do this?????I glad to be a American with my big bad American guns (salutes the american flag)

As far as I know these aren’t meant for hardcore criminals, but rather teenagers who think it’s cool to carry a tool with them. I wish people knew more about UK gun laws before commenting on them, including my fellow countrymen. Just because we don’t allow anybody to have one, doesn’t mean it’s bad; I’d hate to see chavs with these things.

Seeing as a knife is just a sharpened piece of metal, it’s pretty hard to get rid of something that can be easily made in a matter of minutes. I’d be more worried about arming the population rather than disarming them and letting the criminals like chavs know they have free reign.

I think part of the problem England is having is the population has become afraid of criminals to a ridiculous extent.for example, “I’d hate to see chavs with these things.”

fucking grow a set. a wannabe gangster with family issues, a 16 year old baby momma and a sharp (I say it hesitantly, probably dull) piece of metal is scary to you? when did you guys become so pathetic?

knives aren’t even scary, I was carying knives daily from age 15. learn to defend yourselves, big brother cop isn’t always going to be close enough to help you and if you can’t handle a knife you might as well just bend over and take it. you know why Americans aren’t terrified of teens with sharp sticks? because we already have them. its a deterrent at best, a survival opportunity at worst. criminals will have them regardless of whether or not we do.

So you’re stab proof? It’s very hard to defend yourself against a knife attack you don’t know about. That’s the sort of attack that’s common nowadays, chavs thinking they’re hard and stabbing someone in the back and stomach a few times.

We still have our knives and our guns. What we don’t have are our soldiers getting their heads cut off by Muslim terrorists on the street corners. That is uniquely a British experience, at least in the Western Hemisphere.

As an American military member stationed in England, this hasn’t been nearly as big a deal as the media makes it out to be. I carry UK Legal knives daily, and have never been harassed about them by the cops or other people. I bought a Spyderco United Kingdom Pen Knife specifically because it fit all legal rules for me to carry in public without needing a specific reason, but is still a useful design for somebody that is used to EDC a knife.

Knife crime is a problem here because it is an easily available item to attack people with that is easy to conceal. Problem is, a knife is such a useful tool (unlike a gun, which really only has one use) that a bin is pretty pointless and stupid. People turning in their old broken kitchen knives probably is not making any difference in the levels of crime. It is a problem with culture where killing someone is the only way to resolve a dispute. Same problem in the inner city in the states where people shoot each other at the slightest provocation. Nobody knows how to lose any more and they are so scared of getting beat up in a fight that they would rather tool up and kill somebody than take that risk.